Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Levels Any
PROCEDURE
1. Review pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet. If the language is
American English, be sure to pronounce the y at the ends of A, B, C, D, E,
G, I, J, K, P, T, V, and Z, and the w at the ends of O and U. Also, H, Q, R, L,
and X are hard to pronounce and may require extra practice. A possibility
is to have each student say a letter of the alphabet and when a student mis-
pronounces one, have the entire class repeat the correct pronunciation after
you and make them start again with A. Remind them that they need to spell
words with equal stress.
P
continue writing for another 10 minutes. (This step can be omitted if time
is short.)
rewriting or invention strategies help students access their existing knowledge
about a topic before they begin to plan an essay. This activity is based on the 5. At the end of this 10 minutes, stop the writers again and tell them to put
technique of freewriting, or looping, in which writers set to paper everything their pens down.
that comes into their heads, no matter how loosely connected, for a set period of
6. At this point, I reveal my role as an ethnographer, and I tell them about
time. One objective is to free the writers from the constraints
my observations. I describe their different writing styles: some sit very still,
of structure and to encourage a period of free association
moving only the fingers of their writing hand; some shift position frequently
of ideas. A second objective is to help students discover the
and run their fingers through their hair or jiggle their feet or engage in some
many possible directions in which a topic may be developed.
similar manifestation of nervous energy; some eat their apples with gusto;
and others hold the apples delicately in their laps or abandon them on an
PROCEDURE adjacent desk. My goal is to call attention to the variety of valid ways in
1. Bring to class a bag full of apples and give one to each student, along with a which people think and work and write; later we may continue this thought
paper towel or napkin. Give the students these directions: by surveying the students homework habits too. Another benefit of this
For todays activity, you need to have a pen or pencil and some paper. I have part of the activity is that it allows students to decompress a bit from the
given you an appleand that is your writing topic for the next 15 minutes. intensity of their concentration on writing.
When I tell you to begin, you will start writing about your apple. You may 7. After everyone has laughed and relaxed, I ask for volunteers to read all or part
write anything that comes into your head, and you do not need to worry of what theyve written. Usually, in spite of some early hesitation, everyone
about spelling, grammar, or style. The only rule is that you may not stop ultimately agrees to share his or her apple writing. The outcome here is
writing, not even to think. If you cannot remember a word in English, just unpredictable: I have laughed, cried, applauded, and sat in stunned silence,
write the word in your language and keep writing. If your mind goes blank, listening to the endless variety of the students connections. Invariably, the
write the words I cant think of anything to write over and over until at last entire class is deeply impressed by the awesome diversity of the responses.
you think of something else to write. Remember: Your pen or pencil must We celebrate the creativity of the work, and we brainstorm about ways to
keep moving across the paper for the entire 15 minutes; do not stop writing. develop these writings into full essays. I leave it up to the students to decide
individually if they want to work further on this topic; there are always some
who do.
Aims Relax and enjoy writing by focusing on ideas rather f. You are free to write the worst junk in the world.
than mechanics
g. Go for the jugular. If something scary comes up, go for it. Thats where
Class Time 15 minutes the energy is. Have students mine the gems of the writing practice
Resources Pencil and paper or computers, topic exercise to find something that they can work with and develop. Now
is when students should edit, revise and rewrite so as to produce a
finished piece. (pp. 24)
N atalie Goldberg (1990) writes about Zen and the art of writing in Wild
Mind: Living the Writers Life:
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
That big sky is wild mind. Im going to climb up to that sky straight over Goldberg, N. (1990). Wild mind: Living the writers life. New York, NY: Bantam
our heads and put one dot on it with a Magic Marker. See that dot? That Books.
dot is what Zen calls monkey mind or what western psychology calls part of Root, C. (1991, Winter). From monkey mind to wild mind. MATESOL Newsletter.
conscious mind. We give all our attention to that one dot. Thus, when it says
we cant write, that were no good, are failures, fools for even picking up a
pen, we listen to it. We need to give ESL students techniques to help them
relax, get their thoughts to flow, and write with confidence. There is plenty
of time later to edit. (p. 31)
PROCEDURE
1. Give students the theoretical underpinnings and goals of this type of writing
activity as outlined above.
2. Tell students that they will write for 10 minutes without stopping and that
their hands will probably hurt because this is a long time to write without
stopping.
3. Present the following rules for writing practice (Goldberg, 1990), and
thoroughly review these rules with students. (If possible, play beautiful
background music while the students write.)
a. Keep your hand moving. Dont stop. The purpose of this is to keep
the editor and the creator from becoming mixed up. If you keep your
creator hand moving, the editor hand cant catch up with it and lock it.
Levels Intermediate and advanced To set up the program, you start by setting a word count goal and time limit for
the given writing task, which gives students the deadline. Then you select ap-
Aims Practice freewriting
propriate consequence modes and the grace period according to the proficiency
Overcome writers block of students and the difficulty of the writing. After setup, a click on write will
Lessen thinking in the first language while writing bring you to an empty text box with time and word count underneath.
in English
Specifically, the grace period ranges from forgiving (about 15 seconds) and
Have fun with technology strict (about 10 seconds) to evil (roughly a second or two). The four in-
Class Time 70 minutes creasingly severe consequence modes are gentle, normal, and kamikaze.
Gentle mode opens up a pop-up reminder to warn writers to get back to work.
Preparation Time 1 hour
Normal mode triggers an unpleasant sound buzz until the writer resumes writ-
Resources Write or Die application ing. Kamikaze mode will eat the written work if the writer goes over the grace
Access to internet period.
iPads After they are finished writing, users can export their writing to Dropbox, email,
Clipboard, or a text file.
F
Based on the difficulty level of the task and the proficiency level of the students
in this lesson, the grace period of evil and the consequence of kamikaze mode
or most ESL students and even well-trained writers, the hardest part of are chosen. In this mode, whenever students stop typing into the text box for
writing is writers block, or getting started. Educators agree that the best way longer than a second, they will first be warned by blinking red color around the
to overcome it is to practice freewriting. Freewriting happens when you set a text box. Eventually, if no more words are typed after 5 seconds, the program
limit and then write whatever comes to mind. Jacobss (1986) interpretation starts eating words about a second at a time from the end of the work going
of the nature of freewriting has underlining perspectives that include focus on backward. Basically, if students dont continue writing, anything they wrote will
content, writing freely without stopping, and not worrying about formjust be gone. Instead, if they complete within the time limit, there are no negative
writing. It is generally assumed that once students know how to start, it usually consequences. A tangible punishment like this could be really challenging and
comes naturally and writing starts to flow. However, in a real ESL classroom, amusing. With time ticking away and the danger of kamikaze mode, students
freewriting is easier said than done. Writers block will often happen to those have no choice but to write as much as possible in a timely manner.
who are reluctant or hesitant writers or others who are perfectionists, feeling
compelled to correct themselves all the time. In order to remedy these problems, In Class
this interesting and effective lesson utilizes the fun nature of the Write or Die
iPad application and the theory of negative reinforcement to encourage students 1. Prewriting: In this stage, make sure students are comfortable using the ap-
freewriting in a timely fashion. plication. Meanwhile, present the stimulus or open-ended prompts to help
students start writing. Introduce the feature of the Write or Die application
and explain how to use it. Ask students to play with it by setting its grace pe-
riod to evil and consequences to kamikaze mode, while setting the word
goal as 500 and time goal as 30 minutes. Be sure to troubleshoot any pos-
sible technical problems, and make sure students are all clear about how to
3. Postwriting: In order to better help students formulate thoughts and gen- Printy, J. (2013). Write or die: Putting the prod in productivity. Retrieved from
erate ideas after freewriting, you could organize a postwriting activity. For http://writeordie.com/#iPad
example, within each team, survivors and victims work together as a
collaborative writing center. The victims share what makes them run into
writers block while the other members give them feedback and help brain-
storm ideas. Then the survivors read their essay and share strategies on how
to start writing in an efficient manner and how they expand on their ideas.
By doing so, most students will come to recognize the nature of freewriting.
Because different survivors will have essays focusing on different perspec-
tives, all the students get to learn from each other.
Practice freewriting and controlling ideas 5. Repeat Step 3 again and again. Announce that each successive reader may
also write questions or comments about the questions or comments of
Class Time 1520 minutes
preceding readers. Occasionally remind students to let their imaginations
Resources Large file cards (or sheets of paper) go so that their peers will have fresh and interesting ideas to work on.
Gradually increase the time permitted for reading the cards and writing on
them to 2 minutes, to allow for the increasing number of comments and
T his activity helps student writers generate ideas for topics that they have
chosen but not thought much about. It invokes cooperative learning and peer
questions on each card.
6. When you judge that there are enough questions and comments on the
cards, collect them and distribute them to their originators by calling out
input analogous to brainstorming; its freedom, creativity, and lack of inhibition the topic, which students can use to identify their own cards. Ten questions
are of great value in prewriting. By doing this activitysilent (written) brain- or comments usually provide enough food for thought for the authors.
stormingevery student writer gets some input on his or her topic from several
others, and every student contributes in an intensive way. At the start of the 7. Instruct the student writers to reflect carefully on the input from their peers
prewriting phase, the writer of the essay receives many written comments and and to use their questions and comments as springboards for further idea
questions, some of which may turn out to be valuable stimuli. development. Make it clear that it is entirely up to them, as authors, to make
use of or ignore the peer input when drafting their essays.
PROCEDURE
CAVEATS AND OPTIONS
1. Distribute a file card to each student. Instruct the students not to put their
names on the cards. Tell each student to write her or his new topic at the top 1. Use sheets of paper instead of large file cards.
of the card, followed by one brief statement about any aspect of the topic 2. Have students write their names on the cards if you feel there is no need to
that might be developed in the essay. In other words, they should write the preserve anonymity.
topic and a controlling idea. (You may need to demonstrate this on the board
or overhead screen.) 3. Instead of stopping the activity after a specific number of comments or
questions, stop only when all students have written on each card.
2. Have the students hand the cards to you. Shuffle them and distribute them
randomly around the class. Inform the class that a student who gets his or 4. This activity could also be done on a class website outside of or during class,
her own card must treat it as if it were a card from another student, to main- such as a Discussion Board on Blackboard or a class blog. However, partici-
tain anonymity as much as possible. pation may be limited if done outside of class.
3. Tell students that they will have 1 minute in which to read what is on the
card and write a comment or a wh- question about it immediately below
the statement written by the originator of the card. (You can also write this
Denise C. Mussman 3. Now, we cube it. Using the sides of the box (or the board, if the questions
are written there), students discuss answers to each side in pairs and then
write nonstop for 10 minutes. Pass the box around the room or show each
Levels Any side one at a time in front of the class. Afterward, students share their ideas
with the class. It is fun how much we can write about a quarter. Typical
Aims Develop and expand ideas
discussions include the following:
Overcome writers block
It is round, hard, and made of silver.
Promote critical thinking and instill confidence
Class Time 3045 minutes It has a picture of George Washington on it and words that say . . . and mean . . .
Resources A white box, or one wrapped in white paper, and a We can use it to buy things, do laundry, and pay for parking, vending machines,
marker for each student (or create the sides of the
box on a handout for students to cut out and tape) candy and toy machines at grocery stores, rides for children, arcade games, etc.
It is similar to a nickel; its size is too close to a dollar coin; it is being replaced with
C
cards.
ubing as a teaching technique has been used widely in many subjects At this point I tell students that if they can write that much about a quarter,
because it is useful to generate ideas on any topic. Its an extension of Blooms there is much more they can write about their topics.
Taxonomy.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
PROCEDURE Schultz, T. (2010, November 29). Cubing: A teaching strategy to promote critical
1. Write one of these instructions on each side of the box: thinking. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/cubing-teaching-strategy
-promote-critical-thinking-7290314.html?cat=4
Describe it. Try to use all five senses. How does it look, feel, taste, smell,
or sound? Spack, R. (2006). Cubing. In Guidelines: A cross-cultural reading/writing text (3rd ed.,
pp. 5759). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Analyze it. What is it made of?
Apply it. How can you use it? What effects does it have on people?
Associate it. What does it remind you of? Make a list.
Compare and contrast it. What is it similar to? How is it different from
other things?
Argue for or against it. List reasons why it is good or should exist.
What are reasons against it?